In Uniform
by stupid-tai
Summary: Yukari would have attended all of his swim meets if she'd known what he looked like in uniform.


"Yukari-san!"

Relief flooded the girl when she saw Yuko walking toward her spot on the bleachers. Yukari had never been to one of Minato's meets—they had started dating only one week before—and in her excitement to support him, she'd arrived at the venue an hour too early. She knew no one, and the place was loud, overly-acoustic, and smelled of chlorine. True, Minato often smelled of chlorine after a day of practice and it was slightly intoxicating. But without his hair in her grasp and his lips on her neck it only reminded Yukari of her father's work.

Yukari smiled when the manager sat next to her. They'd never been especially good friends, but Yuko was sweet and she'd helped Minato adapt to his new environment as much as anyone.

"You're here early," the girl remarked.

Yukari giggled, which was a foreign phenomenon, but now that she was sitting next to a familiar face she felt bubbly with anticipation. "Yeah, he came to my archery tournament the other week, so I wanted to make sure I didn't miss this."

Yuko eyed her neutrally before asking, "So then you guys really are…y'know, dating now?"

The pink-clad archer fidgeted with her bag, willing the blush to recede from her ears, and nodded. "Y-yeah, kinda. It sort of started over break and we decided to try it out."

"And he didn't tell us a thing," Yuko scoffed. "Typical."

If they'd begun dating months ago, this might have bothered Yukari. She never thought there was anything particularly special about her, but her oldest daydreams of him wearing their previously imagined romance on his sleeves gave her the illusion that she was important enough for him to finally shed his emotional barriers. Lately she'd outgrown that fantasy. Yukari had since learned how private a person Minato really was; above all else he valued intimacy in his relationships, rarely devoting his time to any group of people outside of S.E.E.S. Rather, he preferred to find significance in his friends as individuals, the comments and concerns of others be damned. Maybe it was on the shores of Yakushima that she realized a far greater honor than tearing his barriers down was to be allowed in.

The girls passed the time discussing Gekkoukan's national ranking according to whichever swimming association decided such things. This segued into Yuko lamenting her abysmal scores on the last round of midterms they'd taken, and she implored Yukari to lend her Minato's big brain for her impending tribulation of supplementary lessons. Time passed, and the bleachers started to fill. It was during their heated debate as to whether or not Kazushi shaved his legs when the boys finally emerged from the locker rooms.

Yukari fancied herself above the base need for physical attraction in her relationship. After all, her father, while once quite handsome, had become haggard and thin in the time before his passing. Nevertheless, she loved him unconditionally. And though Minato was hot enough to have generated whispers among the female students upon his transfer, he also had poor posture, covered his piercing eyes with his bangs, smiled so softly the gesture was almost unnoticeable, and appeared unfortunately lanky in his open school jacket. Still Yukari chose him.

But when she saw him emerge in his team speedo, she questioned how pure her intentions really were.

It was as if watching Minato's body move expertly across the pool deck's wet tile made Yukari lose control over her own functions. His hair was tousled in a way that made her fingers twitch. Her chest was erratic with emotions. She might have been ashamed at feeling such things if she could process anything beyond the lean definition of his shoulder blades, or the way his Adam's Apple bobbed as he walked. Despite her best efforts, Yukari's gaze trickled between his clavicles and down the light crevasse formed by his pectorals, meeting his taut abdomen in a way that made her gulp. Any lower and she might overheat…

When he noticed her in the now filled bleachers, he stood a little taller and waved. She had to clear her throat a few times before croaking, "G-good luck!"

Yukari had seen him shirtless before, of course; she remembered feeling a similar pressure in her stomach during their trip to Mitsuru's beach-side villa. But she'd clearly underestimated how little those speedos left to the imagination. When he mounted in start position, she was convinced: His backside was crafted by the gods of creation themselves.

Her gasp of appreciation must have been audible, even over the clamor of the cheering crowd, because Yuko grinned.

"Just wait until they get _out_ of the water."

Yukari still prided herself on loving Minato for who he was, rather than what he looked like…but she decided she could settle for the full package. And if loving him meant supporting him through all the swim practices she could squeeze into her schedule, she could bear that, too.


End file.
